1) The document discusses costumes and dressing up for Halloween or parties and how children enjoy pretending and using their imagination through play. 2) It notes that dressing up allows children to explore different roles and occupations which helps their development and understanding of the world. 3) The document recommends having a collection of dress up clothes and costumes at home for children to play with to encourage fantasy play, creativity, and development of self-care skills.

1. Costumes Ahoy!
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2. Some parents who send their children
to our
Montessori early childhood centre do
the Halloween thing and some don’t.

3. But whether you do or whether you
don’t, most children enjoy the chance
to dress up in a costume at some
stage.

4. And seeing as this time of year is when
you get nearly every single department
store sending you catalogues
containing a selection of costumes for
Halloween,

5. this is a good time to talk about fancy
dress and costumes in general.

6. Sometimes, it’s fun to have a good
fancy dress costume handy for a
special party – whether or not this is a
Halloween party.

7. Most children love the role-play aspect
of dressing up, and even adults like
fancy dress now and again.

8. (Puzzling question for the day, adults:
is it worse to go to a normal party in
fancy dress by mistake, or is it worse to
go in normal clothes to a fancy dress
party by mistake?)

9. But even at other times, children love to
play dressing up – and that’s boys and
girls.

10. Dressing up is a great stimulus for
fantasy play. By donning a costume,
children get to act out a role and use
their imaginations.

11. Sometimes, this fantasy play is
preparation for the adult world – they
get to dress up as people from various
occupations and play at having a real
adult job.

12. This helps them to think about the
world around them and the roles that
people play in the community.

13. Just think about how a child plays when
he or she puts on a police uniform.

14. Usually, they’re out to catch the “bad
guys” and put them in jail. Or think
about a child playing doctors or
builders or fire fighters…

15. or any other job that has a recognizable
uniform. It’s easy to see that this
fantasy play is helping them become
good citizens – which is one of the
goals of Montessori education.

16. But fantasy play using dress up
costumes isn’t always as realistic as
this.

17. Fantasy play using costumes also
gives children to explore a world of the
imagination and to really stretch the
“fantasy” part.

18. This helps children develop their
creativity, if you want to put an
educational spin on what they’re doing.

19. And they’re also having great fun!

20. And, depending on the costume,
playing dressing up also gives children
the chance to exercise their self-care
skills using zips, laces, buttons and
other fastenings.

21. And it’s easy to start your own
collection of dressing up clothes at
home.

22. In best Montessori fashion, it’s best to
have these separate from “regular”
clothes, probably in a box as a sort of
“set”.

23. And remember to tidy them all up and
put them back in the box once the play
session is over.

24. Enjoy the costume party!
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